Dr Graham Harris in dialogue with South Africa on water issues

Dr Graham Harris, eminent ecologist, freshwater and marine biologist, chair of the Water Action Council of the Global Research Alliance (GRA), recently paid a visit to South Africa to discuss issues of mutual concern pertaining to integrated water management, collaboration on potential projects and linkages to the GRA water programme.

In a series of conversations with the CSIR, the Water Research Commission and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Dr Harris said that one of the issues discussed at length was the complexities of water management, taking cognisance of ecological and sociological components. The challenge is to integrate these aspects and coordinate skills and resources around appropriate institutions to build a strong base of capabilities.

“The problem is that there is little effective implementation of integrated management plans,” said Harris. “We expect local communities to get on with it without providing support. We lack modules to guide our decisions and the means to implement them at relevant scales. Furthermore, scientific priorities are not always those things that communities care about most, thus leaving us with the problem of integrating the cultural or human needs aspect into the triple bottom line. Harris commented on Working for Water’s sterling work in South Africa and pointed out that this was an excellent example of integrating water management with the social aspect.

The Australian Landscape Trust, of which Harris is a member, is currently experimenting with new forms of community-based development – mentoring, teaching, building and creating the capacity for change. This is not about doing studies on communities or stipulating how change should take place from the outside, but focuses on learning with communities and building trust to be come part of a legacy. “In this respect,” comments Harris, “appropriate technologies and locally sustainable solutions take precedence over predetermined prescriptions.”

If the GRA is to make a difference on the ground where the ultimate impact of its projects must be felt, then it is crucial that all projects comprise an element of engagement with communities to provide for the future sustainability of the projects implemented. The GRA’s work in the water environment is not just about science; it is about socio-economic integration.

Says Harris, “The GRA’s approach to its water initiatives will involve designing large integrated projects from the ground up or duplicating existing successes in appropriate environments. In tackling its projects, the ultimate challenge for the GRA will be to balance multiple criteria in a complex environment. As the world becomes more interconnected, we are seeing rapid convergence between water and energy, human health and digital communication. All these are inextricably intertwined with the ways in which we manage and restore services for people and the environment. In this regard, the GRA provides a unique opportunity to converge all its themes in a global context.

“With regard to water resource planning, the key is resilience.” says Harris. “The patterns of rainfall we have seen in the past are changing. We are having trouble defining baselines and the past is indeed no guide to the future. What were 50 to 100 year planning baselines are now as short as five years.” As an example, Harris sites the changes in Australia’s rainfall and runoff, which were not gradual. In the mid 1970s, Australia experienced a steep change in climate to a much drier regimen, while the runoff in Perth’s dams dropped by half in 1976 and by about another half in the 1990s.

According to Harris, what has happened in the last 20 or 30 years in Australia is unprecedented in the last three to four hundred years of detailed climate reconstructions. He believes that our predictive tools do not have the properties or sophistication to handle this uncertainty. However, although we may not be able to predict the future of water supply, we must be able to manage the eventual result. It is therefore essential that we develop coping mechanisms.

The science we require in this changing environment therefore needs to be radically different, trans-disciplinary, integrated, team-based and focused on outcomes, comments Harris.

In conclusion, he says, “If we are going to drive sustainability, we will have to decide what the future might look like, try to envision it and figure out a way to get there.”